Anhydrogalactose, particularly, 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose (3,6-AHG), 3,6-anhydro-D-galactose, etc. as one of sugars constituting seaweed are candidates of which functionality useful for development of a bioactive substance and applications to the pharmaceutical field is expected.
A lot of 3,6-AHG is mainly contained in seaweed and produced through saccharification using the seaweed as a source material 3,6-AHG produced through the saccharification is one of monosaccharides such as galactose and glucose which are products of the saccharification. Thus, 3,6-AHG is very similar to galactose and glucose in chemical structure and molecular weight. Therefore, it is difficult to isolate a large amount of 3,6-AHG with high purity by the conventional methods such as solvent extraction, adsorption, chromatography, and the like.
Currently, it is estimated that 3,6-AHG is globally produced and sold in small amounts, and it is sold at a very high price of about 300 dollars per 100 mg.
Up to now, anion-chromatography has been known as a method for isolation of 3,6-AHG, but it is suitable for micro-scale implementation only for analysis. Therefore, when applied to large-scale implementation, the anion-chromatography has problems of low durability of resin, high prices of source materials, and a decrease in isolation efficiency when isolation is performed for a long time and increased in amount.
Accordingly, a new method for mass production of anhydrogalactose, particularly 3,6-AHG at low cost is needed.